Joaquin Miller
| deathdate = February }} Joaquin Miller was the pen name of colorful American poet Cincinnatus Hiner Miller (September 8, 1837 - February 17, 1913),Joaquin Miller, Encyclopædia Britannica. Web, Aug. 16, 2018. often called the "Poet of the Sierras".Joaquin Miller: Poet of the Sierras, McCloud Blog. Web, Aug. 16, 2018. Life Family and youth His parents were Hulen (sometimes "Hulings") Miller and Margaret (Witt), who married January 3, 1836 in Union County, Indiana. On September 8, 1837, their son Cincinnatus Hiner Miller was born near Liberty, Indiana.Frost, 11 Miller later changed his birth date to 1841 and said he was born on a wagon going westHapke, Laura. Girls Who Went Wrong: Prostitutes in American Fiction, 1885-1917. Popular Press, 1989: 21. ISBN 0879724749 while in Millersville, Indiana, a town he claimed was founded by his father. He also changed the date of his birth to November 10 for unknown reasons.Marberry, 1-3 While he was a young boy, the Miller family moved to Oregon and settled in the Willamette Valley, establishing a farm in what would become Lane County. Accounts differ, giving the family's move to Oregon as early as 1842, but it was probably between 1850 and 1852. As a young man, he moved to northern California during the California Gold Rush years, and had a variety of adventures, including spending a year living in a Native American village, and being wounded in a battle with Native Americans. A number of his popular works, [http://books.google.com/books?id=QvJkcXOKcTsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=life+amongst+the+modocs Life Amongst the Modocs,] [http://www.notfrisco.com/calmem/miller/elk.html An Elk Hunt], and The Battle of Castle Crags, draw on these experiences. He was wounded in the cheek and neck with an arrow during this latter battle, recuperating at the Gold Rush-era mining town of Portuguese Flat. Wanderings and early writing In the spring of 1857, Miller took part in an expedition against the Pit River Tribe after they killed a white man on Pit River.Peterson, 37 Years later, he claimed that he had sided with the Native Americans and was run out of town for it.Marberry, 23 About 1857, Miller supposedly married an Indian woman named Paquita (she may have been a Modoc Indian, and the relationship was probably that of a "country wife") and lived in the McCloud River area of northern California; the couple had 2 children born in California or Oregon. Spending a short time in the mining camps of northern Idaho, by 1864 Miller had found his way to Canyon City, Oregon, where he was elected the 3rd Judge of Grant County. His old cabin in Canyon City is still standing. Miller's exploits included a variety of occupations: mining-camp cook (who came down with scurvy from eating only what he cooked), lawyer and judge, newspaper writer, Pony Express rider, and horse thief. On July 10, 1859, Miller was caught stealing a horse gelding valued at $80, a saddle worth $15, and other items.Peterson, 40 He was jailed briefly in Shasta County for the crime, and various accounts give other incidents of his repeating this crime in California and Oregon. Miller earned an estimated $3,000 working as a Pony Express rider, and used the money to move to Oregon. With the help of his friend, Senator Joseph Lane, he became editor of the Democratic Register in Eugene,Marberry, 44 a role he held from March 15 to September 20, 1862.Peterson, 50 Though no copies survive, it was known as sympathetic to the Confederacy until it was forced to shut down.Marberry, 45 That year, Miller married Theresa Dyer (alias Minnie Myrtle) on September 12, 1862, in her home four days after meeting herFrost, 36 in Port Orford, Oregon. He had corresponded with her after exchanging poems with her for criticism and chasing away a competing suitor.Marberry, 45-46 The couple had 2 children. In 1868, Miller paid for the publication of 500 copies of his debut book of poetry, Specimens.Marberry, 55 It was unnoticed and Miller gave away more copies than he sold. Few have survived.Frost, 55 The author's despair and disappointment was reflected in his 2nd book, Joaquin et al., the next year.Lewis, Nathaniel. Unsettling the Literary West: Authenticity and Authorship. University of Nebraska Press, 2003: 98. ISBN 0803229380 Dyer filed for divorce on April 4, 1870, claiming they had a 3rd child, Henry Mark, the year before and that Miller was "wholly" neglectful.Frost, 44 The court declared them divorced on April 19 and Dyer was granted custody of the baby while the 2 older children were left in the care of her mother. Miller was ordered to pay $200 per year in child support.Frost, 46 Miller believed the divorce prevented him from being nominated for a seat on the Oregon Supreme Court.Peterson, 58 He never denied her charges that he was neglectful of her and their children and was rarely home.Marberry, 58-59 He also may have had an affair with actress Adah Isaacs Menken shortly into the marriage.Marberry, 47-48 Travels Miller had sent a copy of Joaquin, et al. to Bret Harte, who offered advice that he avoid "faults of excess" and encouragingly wrote, "you on your way to become a poet."Nissen, Axel. Bret Harte: Prince and Pauper. University of Mississippi Press, 2000: 93-94. ISBN 9781578062539 The next summer, July 1870, Miller traveled to San Francisco with borrowed money and there befriended Charles Warren Stoddard and Ina Coolbrith. Stoddard was the first to meet him at the dock and, as he recalled, Miller's first words to him were, "Well, let us go and talk with the poets."Marberry, 64 Miller went to England, where he was celebrated as a frontier oddity. There, in May 1871, Miller published Songs of the Sierras, the book which finalized his nickname as the "Poet of the Sierras".Marberry, 93-94 It was well-received by the British press and members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, particularly Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Michael Rossetti. While in England, he was among the few Americans invited into the Savage Club along with Julian Hawthorne, son of Nathaniel Hawthorne. The younger Hawthorne referred to Miller as "a licensed libertine" but admitted him "charming, amiable, and harmless".Marberry, 85-86 Rather abruptly, Miller left England in September 1871 and landed in New York. At the encouragement of family, he made his way to Easton, Pennsylvania to visit his brother on his death-bed before returning to Oregon; his father died shortly thereafter. Miller eventually settled in California, where he grew fruit and published his poems and other works. In 1877, Miller adapted his First Fam'lies of the Sierras into a play, The Danites, or, the Heart of the Sierras. It opened on August 22 in New York with McKee Rankin as the main character.Marberry, 158-159 The anti-Mormon play, which featured Danites hunting the daughter of 1 of the murderers of Joseph Smith, Jr., became a commercially successful example of the anti-Mormon dramas of the time. The Spirit of the Times, however, attributed its success to curious audience members expecting a disastrous failure and instead discovering a good show: "The play proved to possess more than ordinary merit, and if it is not a great work, it is decidedly not a very bad one."Jones, Megan Sanborn. Performing American Identity in Anti-Mormon Melodrama. Taylor & Francis, 2009: 103. ISBN 9780415800594 The theater run of The Danites was extended from only a few days to 7 straight weeks, and then was moved to another theatre. Ultimately, the play was performed to such a degree that it rivaled the popularity of Uncle Tom's Cabin.Marberry, 159-160. It was published in book form later in 1877.Peterson, 179 Miller later admitted that he regretted the anti-Mormon tone.Marberry, 160 Miller married for a 3rd time on September 8, 1879, to Abigail Leland, in New York City. Later years and death In 1886, Miller published The Destruction of Gotham, a book which was an early to depiction of a prostitute as a heroine. That year, he moved to Oakland, California, and built a home for himself he called "The Hights". He remained there until his death in 1913. Japanese poet Yone Noguchi came to The Hights in 1894 and spent the next 4 years there as an unpaid laborer in exchange for room and board. While living there, he published his debut book, Seen or Unseen; or, Monologues of a homeless snail (1897). Though he referred to Miller as "the most natural man", Noguchi reflected on those years as his most difficult in the United States and later fictionalized his experience in The American Diary of a Japanese Girl.Wyatt, David. Five Fires: Race, Catastrophe, and the Shaping of California. Oxford University Press, 1999: 188. ISBN 0195127412 In 1897, Miller traveled to the Yukon as a newspaper correspondent.Marberry, 237 He saw Alaska on July 30.Frost, 110 His dispatches, many of which were written before reaching Alaska, incorrectly implied an easy and inexpensive trip. Miller himself nearly froze to death and lost 2 toes to frostbite.Marberry, 238-242 Miller died on February 17, 1913, surrounded by friends and family. His last words were recorded as "Take me away; take me away!" The poet had asked to be cremated by friends in the funeral pyre he built at The Hights with no religious ceremony and without being embalmed. His wishes were mostly ignored and the funeral on February 19 drew thousands of curious onlookers.Marberry, 280-281 The preacher who spoke referred to Miller as "the last of America's great poets."Frost, 112 On May 23, members of the Bohemian Club of San Francisco and the Press Club returned to Miller's funeral pyre to burn the urn which contained his ashes, allowing them to scatter. He had left no will and his estate - estimated at $100,000 - was divided between his wife and daughter.Marberry, 282-283 Writing Miller was championed, although not enthusiastically, by Bret Harte and Ambrose Bierce. Bierce, who once called Miller "the greatest-hearted man I ever knew" also is quoted as saying that he was "the greatest liar this country ever produced. He cannot, or will not, tell the truth." Miller's response was, "I always wondered why God made Bierce." Called the "Poet of the Sierras" and the "Byron of the Rockies", he may have been more of a celebrity in England than in his native U.S. Much of his reputation, however, came not from his poetry but from the image he created for himself by capitalizing on the stereotypical image of Western frontiersmen.Lewis, Nathaniel. Unsettling the Literary West: Authenticity and Authorship. University of Nebraska Press, 2003: 78. ISBN 0803229380 As poet Bayard Taylor bitterly noted in 1876, British audiences "place the simulated savagery of Joaquin Miller beside the pure and serene muse of Longfellow."Loving, Jerome. Mark Twain: The Adventures of Samuel L. Clemens. University of California Press, 2010: 234. ISBN 9780520252578 Critics made much of Miller's poor spelling and rhymes; he once rhymed "Goethe" and "teeth". Henry Cuyler Bunner satirized the error in a poem titled "Shake, Mulleary, and Go-ethe".Untermeyer, Louis. Modern American Poetry. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1921: 64. Miller himself once admitted, "I'm damned if I could tell the difference between a hexameter and a pentameter to save my scalp."Marberry, 90 The Westminster Review referred to Miller's poetry as "Whitman without the coarseness".Peterson, 66 For a time, Miller's poem "Columbus" was widely known, memorized and recited by legions of schoolchildren. Quotations Miller is remembered today, among other reasons, for lines from his poem in honor of "Burns and Byron": In men whom men condemn as ill I find so much of goodness still. In men whom men pronounce divine I find so much of sin and blot I do not dare to draw a line Between the two, where God has not. Recognition The Joaquin Miller Cabin is located in Rock Creek Park in Washington, DC. The Hights, the Oakland home Miller built at the end of his life, is currently known as the Joaquin Miller House and is part of Joaquin Miller Park. Miller also planted the surrounding trees and personally built, on the eminence to the north, his own funeral pyre and monuments dedicated to Moses, General John C. Fremont and poets Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Japanese poet Yone Noguchi began his literary career while living in the cabin adjoining Miller's during the latter half of the 1890s. The Hights was purchased by the city of Oakland in 1919 and can be found in Joaquin Miller Park. It is now a designated California Historical Landmark. Joaquin Miller Elementary School in Oakland, California, is named for him.About Joaquin Miller, Joaquin Miller Elementary]. Web, Aug. 16, 2018. Publications Poetry *''Specimens'' (as "C.H. Miller"). Canyon City, OR: George H. Himes, 1868. *''Joaquin, et al. Portland, OR: R.J. McCormick, 1869; London: John Camden Hotten, 1872. *Pacific Poems. London: Whittingham & Wilkins, 1871. *Songs of the Sierras. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1871. *Songs of the Sun-Lands. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1873; London: Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer, 1873. *The Ship in the Desert. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1875. *The Baroness of New York. New York: G.W.Carleton, 1877. *Songs of Italy. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1878. *Songs of Far-Away Lands. London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, 1878. *Poems. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1882. *Songs of the Mexican Seas. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1887. *In Classic Shades, and other poems. Chicago: Bedford-Clarke, 1890. *Songs of Summer Lands. Chicago: Morrill, Higgins, 1892. *''The Battle of Castle Crags. San Francisco, CA: The Traveller, 1894. *''Songs of the Soul. San Francisco: Whitaker & Ray, 1896; London: Routledge, 1896. *Complete Poetical Works . San Francisco: Whitaker & Ray, 1897; London: Routledge, 1897; New York: Arno Press, 1972. *Chants for the Boer. San Francisco, CA: Whitaker & Ray, 1900. *As It Was in the Beginning: A poem. San Francisco, CA: A.M. Robertson, 1903. *Light: A narrative poem. Boston: Herbert B. Turner, 1907. *''Joaquin Miller's Poems. (6 volumes), San Francisco, CA: Whitaker & Ray, 1909. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III, Volume IV, Volume V, Volume VI. *''The Poetical Works of Joaquin Miller''. New York & London: Putnam, 1923. *''Selections from Joaquin Miller's Poems''. Oakland, CA: Tooley-Towne, 1945. Plays *''Forty-Nine: An idyl drama of the Sierras, in four acts. San Francisco, CA: California Publishing, 1882. *''The Danites in the Sierras (in four acts). San Francisco, CA: Whitaker & Ray, 1910. *''Tally-Ho''. San Francisco, CA: Harr-Wagner, 1910 (in Poetic Plays). *''An Oregon Idyl''. San Francisco, CA: Harr-Wagner, 1910 (in Poetic Plays). Novels *''The One Fair Woman. New York: G.W. Dillingham, 1876; London: Chapman & Hall, 1876. *Shadows of Shasta. Chicago: Jansen McClurg, 1881. *'49: The gold seeker of the Sierras. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1884. *The Destruction of Gotham. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1886 *The Building of the City Beautiful. Trenton, NJ: Albert Brandt. 1905. Non-fiction *Life Amongst the Modocs: Unwritten history. London: Richard Bentley, 1873. **Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books / San Jose, CA: Union Press, 1996. *First Fam'lies of the Sierras. London: Routledge, 1875; Chicago: Jansen, McClurg, 1876. **published as ''The Danites in the Sierras. Chicago: Jansen, McClurg, 1881. *''Paquita, the Indian Heroine: A true story. Hartford, CT: American Publishing, 1885. *My Own Story. Chicago: Belford-Clarke, 1890; London: Saxon, 1890. *An Illustrated History of the State of Montana. Chicago: Lewis, 1894. *"Stampedes on the Klondike: How I missed being a millionaire," ''Overland Monthly, 1897. *''Trelawny with Shelley and Byron. Pompton Lakes, NJ: Biblio, 1922. *''Overland in a Covered Wagon: An autobiography. New York & London: D. Appleton, 1930. Juvenile *''Memorie and Rime. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1884. *"The Little Gold Miners of the Sierras" in ''The Little Gold Miners of the Sierras, and other stories. Boston: D. Lothrop, 1886. *''True Bear Stories'' (illustrated by James Robertson). Chicago: Rand McNally, 1900. Collected editions *''The Danites:, and other choice selections from the writings of Joaquin Miller, "the poet of the Sierras"'' (selected by Abraham Van Doren Honeyman). New York: American News, 1878. *''Selected Writings'' (edited by Alan Rosenus). Eugene, OR: Union Press, 1977. Letters and journals *''A Royal Highway of the World''. Portland, OR: Metropolitan Press, 1932. *''Joaquin Miller: His California diary, beginning in 1855 & ending in 1857''. Seattle, WA: Dogwood Press, 1936. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Joaquin Miller, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Oct. 1, 2013. See also *List of U.S. poets References *Orcutt William Frost, Joaquin Miller. Twayne, 1967. *M.M. Marberry, Splendid Poseur: Joaquin Miller, American poet. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1953. *Martin Severin Peterson, Joaquin Miller: Literary frontiersman. Stanford University Press, 1937. Fonds *Guide to the Joaquin Miller Papers at The Bancroft Library Notes External links ;Poems *"By the Pacific Ocean" *"Columbus" at Your Daily Poem *3 poems by Joaquin Miller in the Poetry Archive. *3 poems by Joaquin Miller at Cowboy Poetry *Joaquin Miller at Poetry Nook (296 poems) ;Books * *Joaquin Miller at the Online Books Page *Joaquin Miller at Amazon.com *Margaret Guilford-Kardell's Bibliography on the Life, Times, and Exploits of Cincinnatus Hiner Miller ;About *Joaquin Miller in the Encyclopædia Britannica *Joaquin Miller: Poet of the Sierras at the McCloud Blog *Joaquin Miller at NNDB *Who was Joaquin Miller?, Joaquin Miller School *Notable Oregonians: Joaquin Miller - Poet, Writer at Oregon Blue Book *"1905 With the Poet of Light and Joy", by Yone Noguchi * *Cincinnatus Hiner Miller Official website. Category:1837 births Category:1913 deaths Category:American poets Category:Writers from Oakland, California Category:People from Grant County, Oregon Category:Oregon state court judges Category:Writers from Oregon Category:History of the San Francisco Bay Area Category:American dramatists and playwrights Category:Pony Express riders Category:People from Oakland, California Category:Writers from California Category:19th-century poets Category:Poets